My friend, Jill, and I are both making the Moda Modern Building Blocks quilt. She is working from the kit, adding a few of her own fabrics and I am working from my stash. Well, I am trying to work from my stash. I may have to pick up a fabric or two as needed - most of my cuts are 1/2 yard or smaller and some of these block eat up a lot of fabric!

Above is my first block, finished a few weeks ago. As the pattern suggests, we are starting with the biggest block and working our way smaller. Good thing, too, as the cutting instructions seem to be difficult for me to manage. I don't know what it is about them, but I cannot follow them correctly. The amount of fabric I have wasted is crazy. On the last two I cut, I wrote the sizes on a sticky note and I didn't make any mistakes. I will continue in that manner going forward. It really sucks when you mess up on Carolyn Friedlander's ledger print. Just saying.

I didn't start with a well-developed color scheme. I am just going to let this one take me where it will. Right now it is looking very gold, green, red, orange and blue with low volumes. That could change. I may end up with a ton of variety in the prints, but I am hoping to keep the prints harmonious. By using what I like, I am hoping that it will just come together in the end. Fingers crossed.

Three blocks down, a ton to go. The fourth is cut out ready for when I have a few moments to string together. I don't know what it is about May, but I swear it is busier than December! The school year is wrapping up here - Jane has 2 weeks left, Kate has 3. I have a few secret quilts I am working on and I am still trying to get some of the book quilts into pattern form. Can anyone recommend a designer that can turn all my little sketches and instructions into a beautiful pdf? Let me know! I am ready to get this rolling.

Back here Friday with another book review and giveaway!

I know many, many quilters were dismayed to hear that Quilty magazine has stopped publishing. It's a shame, really. Each and every issue was full of beautiful quilt patterns and many practical tips and advice.

Dear Quilty: 12 Easy Patchwork Quilts and Great Quilting Advice by Mary Fons (Fons & Porter/F&W $22.99) is a book from the group that put together the magazine. This book has 12 easy patchwork quilts and all of the tips and tricks that were the hallmark of the magazine. It is aimed at beginning quilters, but I think it would be a welcome addition to any quilter's library because it has so much practical information including tips on cutting, piecing, colors, binding and more. There are also profiles on members of the Quilty team and some letters from the magazine's readers. It's a nice read and a visual treat - a winning combination when it comes to quilt books!

One of my favorite quilts is this Sunny Side Up by Anna Graham. It is a fresh, modern take on traditional design. I also love the one below by Tula Pink - great use of strips and, of course, the fabric is to die for!

I have one copy of the book to giveaway (U.S. addresses only). To enter, comment on this post and tell me why you started quilting. I will leave the comments open until Sunday, May 10 at 6:00 pm EST. Good luck!

I whipped up a Linden sweatshirt yesterday in about an hour. This pattern by Grainline Studios is a super easy sew. I am sure that you have seen a gazillion versions of it, especially if you are on instagram. If not, check out the hastag #lindensweatshirt. Simple, comfortable, fast, well-fitting - it has all the hallmarks of a pattern that I will sew again and again. And, actually, this is my second one. The first I made out of a Liberty sweatshirt fleece back in the winter - it is heavy and cozy and was worn a ton. This fabric is a much lighter French terry. I bought it from Frances at Miss Matatabi. She has the best stuff! While I was shopping for this, I picked up some pink French terry, too. That's earmarked for Linden #3.

Headless! First thing in the morning, on my way to work out is not a look I feel like sharing today. ;)

The nitty gritty:  I made myself a size 12, same as I have in other Grainline patterns. I think the fit is spot on for me. I may be inclined to add a tiny bit of length, maybe an inch, to the front and back pieces of the pattern on my next go, but I am not sure. The Liberty one I made in the winter, I sized up to a 14 because the fabric had little to no stretch. I also cut the cuffs and neck band on the bias for that one. But! This one was made exactly as the pattern specified and came together beautifully. There are a few spotty bits of top-stitching with the double needle, but those are completely user error (forgot to put on the walking foot!) and I am not going to point them out! I sewed most of it on my serger, but it can be done on a domestic machine, too. I did add the cuffs, neck band and waist band with the sewing machine before serging the seams. It was just easier that way for me.

Overall, a winner of a pattern! I can't wait to make another.

Oh, hey.

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks and things don't look they are going to slow down in the foreseeable future. I keep thinking that if I can get myself to May 9th, I will be able to breathe a little bit. And, heck, I might even be able to sew something. That'd be fun.

In the meantime, the peonies in the yard are inching their ways towards blooming. Of course, the ones at Whole Foods are already flaunting their wares so, naturally, some jumped in my cart. We've got lilacs, too. And I bought some geraniums for my pots. The sun is shining bright and, as always in the week leading up to the first Saturday in May, the general mood is festive around town. I don't like complaining about the weather or the seasons, but, man oh man, I was ready for winter to go. I needed spring.

I don't leave town again until July. JULY. This is very exciting. I've got some projects I'd like to tackle and farmers' markets to visit. School is winding down and I couldn't be happier about no homework on the horizon. I think the girls are with me on this. Actually, I am sure they are.

I've got a few books sitting here that I can't wait to share with you all. Good quilty inspiration! I'm thinking reviews and giveaways once a week on Fridays until I have nothing left to share. So, I guess I will see you then.

On a complete and total whim a few weeks ago, I decided to make an improv quilt. The fabrics, mostly Shelburne Falls by Denyse Schmidt, just spoke to me as I was wading through the stash. I don't know what drew me to the purple - perhaps the wild violets that show themselves in the grass every spring? No matter! Purple it was! And bonus because I have a dear friend whose birthday was around the corner and she loves purple like I love green. No better time than that! I grabbed the fabrics, pulled in a couple of other prints (a purple gingham, the pink pez, red and pink dot) and some Kona snow (always on hand!) and started cutting.

If you'd like to make something similar yourself, the process is super simple. I cut full widths of the printed and the white fabrics about 14" long. Then I sub-cut them into smaller strips using my rotary cutter without the ruler. I was intentional in making them different widths and a little wonky/angled, but not too crazy. I paired each printed strip with a white strip and sewed them together.

Once that step was complete, I took each print/white pair and sewed it to another print/white pair so that I ended up with "blocks" alternating 2 prints with 2 white strips. I find that making blocks like this to arrange in the quilt top is measurably faster and easier for me. It takes much less time to lay everything out, I have fewer design decisions to make and I make them faster! Once I had the blocks arranged the in five rows (one for each of my friend's children), I sewed the blocks together. Due to the irregularity of the strips, the sewn rows had to be trimmed down before I was able to sew them together into a quilt top. You do lose a bit of height on all of them - two rows ended up being 12" unfinished and the other three were 12.5" unfinished. I was aiming for a 60" quilt so it is good to cut the strips taller than you think they need to be.

After I had the rows sewn together and the quilt basted, I let it sit for a couple of days before quilting it. I wasn't sure if I wanted straight-ish lines or if I wanted to free motion something. In the end, I decided to quilt it with free motion loops from side to side. I didn't mark the rows, but rather used the seam lines as a general guide and that seemed to work well. The quilting was fast! Maybe an hour and a half? A good reminder that free motion quilting often takes less time than straight lines - I always forget that!

The back was pieced with a 60" wide piece of the purple gingham and a strip of other prints along one side. I bound it with a stripe from the same collection that I didn't use in the quilt top. Oh - and one little part of the binding is another print that was a mistake I added as a design element. I think it gives it a little extra charm.

I washed the quilt so it would be soft and crinkly. I loved how it came out and had so much fun making it. I'm already plotting the next one!

A few weeks back, I pulled these Heather Bailey Up Parasol prints from my stash to make the Four Winds Quilt by Amber Corcoran of Fancy Tiger Crafts after seeing it on the store's blog. (Whoa! That's a lot of links in one sentence!) I immediately loved the over-sized flying geese and the simple, graphic punch that this quilt carries. I also loved that it would be a good pattern to use some larger scale prints that don't lend themselves to small piecing. I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to fall hard for those prints, especially florals. In the end, they linger on my shelves longer than their small scale counterparts. This quilt pattern is a great opportunity to let them shine! I found an unknown blue solid in my stash and was super excited to get cutting. Unfortunately, the blue ended up being about four inches too short for my purposes. No matter! I went out and bought a longer cut of a lime-y green and like it just as much, maybe even more.

I cut the fabric one night watching TV and then sewed it up the next morning in the matter of a couple of hours. It's fast to come together and the instructions are easy to follow. The geese are pieced using the no-waste method and you need an equal number of each print. I did find that the cutting instructions called for the setting squares in the corners to be slightly larger than necessary so I trimmed them down before I sewed the top together. I'm not sure if that was intentional or errata, but better larger than smaller! The pattern contains three sizes. I made the large throw size and the top finishes at 64 1/2" square. I'm looking forward to quilting it in the next couple of weeks. I think it'll be a great opportunity to practice my free motion skills.

What other quilt patterns have you used successfully with large scale prints? I'm also wondering about cutting fabric...do you tend to cut everything you need for a quilt and then start sewing or cut as you go, mixing the piecing in? Maybe it depends on the project? And am I alone in loving to cut fabric at night so it's ready to go the next day? I think that may be a weird quirk of mine, but would love to hear I'm wrong.

Happy sewing!

I consistently carry some kind of project in my purse or my car with me for the down moments when I find myself sitting and waiting. It is almost always some kind of portable handwork - knitting, embroidery, needlepoint. I like having something to keep my hands busy, but that allows me to talk and interact with others while I am doing it. I find it especially nice to have something to work on when I travel. Besides being portable, it needs to be easy to pick up and put down. I always used to have a book on hand because I love to read, but when the girls were little, I found that I never got around to reading the books because they talked so much. (Understatement.) That is when I started carrying some kind of stitching. I could work along and listen and converse and laugh all the while.

Presently I find myself waiting alone more than I do with one of my cohorts, but I am still stitching along. I love the sense of accomplishment I get from completing a band of ribbing on a hat or two needles worth of yarn on my needlepoint in the thirty minutes of a guitar lesson or the fifteen minutes before play rehearsal is over. Plain and simple, it's just a good use of my time.

My newest project is Carolyn Friedlander's Alturas. I have wanted to make this for a long time and bought the pattern from her last spring at SewDown in Nashville. And, of course, I was heavily inspired by Cheryl's version. It is just so beautiful! In searching for my *perfect* palette, I consulted my stash and settled on Liberty. Just that, Liberty of London Tana Lawn in all of its floral goodness. I'm not worrying about the colors or the scale or how in the world I am going to hand applique all. of. those. pieces. Instead, I gathered 70 five-inch squares and cut a handful of backgrounds from my very favorite Kona Snow. I took eight prints from the top of the pile and packed them in my handwork pouch (complete with thread, needles and embroidery scissors) for a quick day trip to Chicago a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to a five hour delay at O'Hare on our way home, I had all eight blocks prepped and ready for needle turn applique by the tie we landed.

I'd be lying if I told you I had gotten further than that. I haven't. I am so very, very close to finishing my other traveling handwork project started almost exactly two years ago. Anna Maria, you are going to be so proud of me.

There is something magic about this time of the year. While I have always touted autumn as my favorite season, spring is right up there. The anticipation of warm weather after months of gray skies and frigid temperatures seems to be constantly on my mind. I watch the weather forecast and delight in predictions of anything north of 50 degrees, silently sighing when consecutive days of rain are ahead. The evening light that comes with the one hour forward push of the clock is so welcome. I find my spirits brighter, the witching hour shorter and the general mood of everyone elevated so slightly that the tiniest of shifts add up to a great sum. In short, it's lovely.

This spring is later than in years past, making it all the sweeter. I have photos in my archives of our magnolia tree in full bloom on St. Patrick's Day. As of last night, I noticed just the faintest touches of pink on the tippy-top branches. Soon. Likewise, Fatty and I walked the dog on Saturday morning, noting the daffodils that were inching closer to blooming. On Sunday, those very same bulbs had gone and done it - yellow blooms everywhere! I saw forsythia flaunting its golden self roadside yesterday and was amazed at the tiny leaves sprouting on my sole lilac bush. One day soon, I will be driving down a particular stretch of road that I travel multiple times most days and I will be overcome with the season - trees in bloom, all the green leaves and green grass, sun shining and warm air. It sneaks up on me, but it is a moment that I look forward to all year. The overwhelming feeling of joy and being alive always surprises me, but I soak it in and carry it with me for weeks and months to come.

I want to remember how we ate dinner outside on Saturday night, drinking the bottle of wine that Caroline and Jeremy brought before they left. And how I got up on Sunday morning, grabbed my coffee and a quilt and sat outside with a magazine, even if it was for a short time. And that yesterday was 77 degrees! I drove around town, doing my errands with the windows open. I wore a skirt, no tights, short sleeves and flats. I spent the remainder of my day in the studio sewing, just like I did the day before. At the moment, I have an incredible need to see some projects through. I have finished three quilt tops and am very close to finishing a fourth. I have a gazillion ideas running through my head and I am ignoring all housework and just sewing, sewing, sewing. I want to remember this - the frenzy, the excitement, the energy all directed at making things.